SESONA Mjuleni, who received a scholarship from Cookhouse Wind Farm last year, is now a second-year student at Cape Peninsula University of Technology, studying towards a National Diploma in Maritime Studies (Navigation).
She recently attended a workshop in Johannesburg, with fellow scholarship recipients, to prepare for the next stage of her career.
According to Mjuleni, “Studying equips you with the theoretical side of whatever job you will be doing.
“It does not prepare you for how the workplace will affect you emotionally and mentally or how you should conduct yourself, because (depending on where you work) the workplace is a different environment with different types of people.”
Mjuleni, who comes from Somerset East, is one of 12 scholarship recipients from REISA Solar Farm, Umoya Energy Wind Farm and Cookhouse Wind Farm, who spent part of their winter holiday attending programmes which are designed to equip students with necessary skills required for them to be successful students and to address real-life problems in a collaborative way and prepare for the so-called 21st century learning.
Cookhouse Wind Farm community operations manager, Elton Gordon, explained that, “The gap between leaving school, successfully completing a degree and entering the workspace is enormous and can sometimes be overwhelming, especially for youth coming from small towns and rural areas.”
The workshop is tailored to fill skills gaps for different faculties of studies, such as a first-year programme for engineering and science students that deals with threshold concepts in maths, science and technology.
Expressing the value of the workshop, Mjuleni said she believed it was very important to get help in bridging the gap between studying and working, “so that one does not struggle with the transition from being a student into an independent working individual.”
The programme for final year, honours and post-graduate students is devoted to the two main requirements of work readiness – emotional intelligence and thinking agility.
“For many young people, being awarded a scholarship is often the only option available for after-school education. However, we like to support our learners with more than just financial assistance as it is often life skills and emotional integration that lead to unnecessary stress and drop-outs,” added Gordon.
The overall focus of all programmes is on preparation for the 21st century learning, namely communication, collaboration, critical thinking and creativity (innovation).
For these reasons the workshop’s main programme is interspersed with shorter workshops on life, learning, innovation and thinking strategies, which include presentations by experts and practitioners to share their wisdom.
The Cookhouse Wind Farm scholarship programme was launched four years ago, with the aim of providing tertiary education funding for youth.
The focus is to contribute towards human resource development in fields considered critical for the South African economy.
